1 JUNE 2002, Page 28

Adult behaviour

From Mr Norman Pridmore Sir: Mr Ross Clark (Banned wagon, 25 May) suggests that children require a different kind of discipline from adults. He seems to believe that this justifies smacking children.

I believe that it is more strictly a justification for the corporal punishment of adults, and that the smacking of children is usually simply an expression of loss of control on behalf of adults. Where it is deliberate and reasoned, it becomes an act of remote and cold sadism, and an abnegation of an adult's responsibility to behave in a civilised manner. Norman Pridmore

Sleaford, Lincolnshire